Montreal – Old Town

Montreal City Hall

Friday, May 30, 2025

We started the morning with breakfast at Universal Dejeuners et Grillades. I really enjoyed this restaurant; I had the breakfast poutine which is basically poutine with a fried egg. Sophon had French Toast with Berries and Nutella. Not exactly a healthy breakfast to start the day.

We had booked a small group walking tour of Old Town with MTL tours. We met up with the tour out front of Notre Dame cathedral. As with the previous tour, it was explained that Montreal is an Island that sits between the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa Rivers. It is about 10 times the size of Manhattan.

The name means Royal Mountain. It was named by Jaques Cartier who is credited for discovering Canada. He climbed the hill in the middle of the Island and named it Mount Royal. As with our previous guide, we were told not to call it a hill. I am no expert; I don’t think you can call it a mountain.

As we walked around Old Town, we learned the history. It was settled in 1642 and like so many settlements in the Northeast, the settlers relied on the natives, the Iroquois Nation. We learned about the different styles of building and how to recognize buildings that were built by the French versus the English.

We passed by a beautiful building which was the Molson Bank – yes, as in the Molson family who owned Molson’s beer. It is close to the Le St. James Hotel, which was a luxury hotel and celebrity magnet. Brittany Spears, Madonna, Elton John, Mick Jagger and Johnny Depp were a few of the names mentioned.

We also passed through the Royal Bank of Canada. The lobby has been converted into a café. If I go back to Montreal, I am going to go back for a meal. The building is beautiful.

It was a half day tour and overall, we were impressed with the tour and the tour guide. After the tour, we had lunch and then did some more walking around before heading back to the hotel. When I checked my phone, I noticed that we had already gotten 10,000 steps in – I decided we had earned an Uber back to the hotel.

For dinner, we went to the shopping center that was a block away. They had an upscale food court called “Time Out”. It was very nice.